


And the Siren's Song

by angellwings



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Family, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Hurt/Comfort, LITSvdayexchange, Trust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-03-12 08:20:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3349838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angellwings/pseuds/angellwings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jake faces the aftermath of the team's encounter with a siren and it forces him to see things more clearly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And the Siren's Song

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is part of the LITS Vday Exchange on tumblr and is for kittywinterss on tumblr! I posted it there and mentioned her but if you're on Ao3, kittywinterss, let me know I will gift this to you! Hopefully it's close enough to your request! Happy reading!

Cassie had been hurt because of _him._ She’d trusted him and he failed her. _She_ trusted _him_. Baird had told him it wasn’t his fault, that he wasn’t in complete control of himself. Ezekiel had assured him that he had snapped out of it and helped her immediately afterward. Flynn had been amazed that he’d been able to snap out of it at all. A Siren’s song typically never let go of its victim.

Ezekiel and Flynn were only released from it after he and Baird had trapped the creature and prevented her from singing. While the others wrapped things up, Jake and Jenkins rushed Cassandra to the hospital. She’d suffered a pretty bad blow and she was bleeding from a small gash on the back of her head. Which was a result of _him_ throwing her against a cave wall.

He did this with _his own_ hands.

He and Jenkins waited while the Doctor stitched up her head and inspected her for signs of a concussion. They’d closed the curtain around where they were working on her and left Jenkins and himself sitting in stiff chairs a few feet away.

Jake put his elbows on his knees and ran his hands over his face and through his hair while his left leg bounced impatiently. The words “my fault” kept repeating in his head like a mantra meant to tear him down. And it was working.

“Mr. Stone,” Jenkins said loudly. “Please stop that infernal shaking.”

His leg immediately stilled and his posture deflated. He sank back in the chair and stared down at his hands. There was literally blood on them from where he’d held a cloth the back of Cassandra’s head as her gash bled through her hair. He fisted his hands so tight his knuckles were white and his hands were shaking.

“This isn’t your fault, you know,” Jenkins said with a tired sigh. “You weren’t in control of your actions—“

“I should have been,” he snapped. “It was _Cassie_. She trusted me to stop myself. She pleaded with me to come back and—and instead I—“ he cut off his own sentence and took a shaky breath before he showed Jenkins his bloody hands. “Instead I did _this_.”

“You stopped yourself. It could have been a thousand times worse. _You_ broke the Siren’s hold, Mr. Stone. Which is a practically impossible task and _you_ did that _for_ Ms. Cillian. To save her,” Jenkins told him. “That, Mr. Stone, was a Herculean feat.”

Jake looked at him in disbelief. “Are you trying to say that I should be _proud_ of myself?”

“ _Certianly not_ ,” Jenkins said harshly. “I’m merely trying to point out the complexity of the situation. You should not be so hard on yourself.”

Jake chuckled bitterly. “That’s not going to happen.”

“You know,” Jenkins said hesitantly with pursed lips. “I’ve only seen a Siren’s song broken _once_ before in all of my years.” He paused and gave Jake a measuring glance, as if he were deciding if Jake was worthy of his honesty. “And _that_ was in the face of a _truly great_ love.”

Jake rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly and avoided looking at Jenkins. There was a truth in that statement that Jake had been avoiding since the very first day he and Cassandra met. He’d tried to push her away but failed. He’d pretended they were coworkers and nothing more yet every chance he had he kept her close to him. He felt better just knowing she was close by. And then today, when the Siren had control of him the only thing he saw was Cassandra. He wasn’t aware of Baird or Ezekiel or Flynn but Cassandra had been there the whole time in bright red. _Bold screaming red._ He’d fought with everything he had to break through the mist in his mind and reach her, but he hadn’t broken through soon enough. He wondered if that was how Cassie felt during her spells. She’d been his memory that he’d used to find his way out. This time, _she’d_ anchored him. _She_ led him home like a lighthouse shining through the fog.

He remembered thinking she was beautiful in red. But, then, she was always beautiful, wasn’t she? He’d never once thought otherwise. Her terrified face as he’d thrown her against the wall suddenly sprang to mind and his hands clenched again. He swallowed thickly and excused himself from Jenkins. He ducked into the bathroom and scrubbed Cassie’s blood off of his hands until his skin was pink and practically raw. Maybe if he scrubbed hard enough he’d stop seeing her eyes filled with fear. He dried his hands and hesitantly returned to sit next to Jenkins. The tension rose and Jake was certain he was going to explode if they didn’t hear something soon. And then, finally, a nurse pushed Cassie out from behind the curtain in a wheelchair.

“I can walk, you know,” Cassie grumbled as she crossed her arms in front of her.

The nurse sighed as if they’d been having this conversation for a while. “I’m sure you can, but it’s hospital policy and you’ve just suffered a blow to your head. You’ve got to be wheeled to the hospital door.”

Jenkins smirked at Cassandra and then turned to the nurse. “I take it she is free to go?”

The nurse nodded. “She has ten stitches for the gash, but no signs of a concussion. She’ll need to take it easy for a couple of days but other than that she’s fine.”

“Wonderful news,” Jenkins said. “I’ll pull the car around. Mr. Stone, if you will do the honors of escorting Ms. Cillian to the exit.”

Jake hadn’t stop staring at Cassie since the nurse wheeled her out, however, at that statement he turned to argue with Jenkins but he was already gone.  He was immensely relieved she was okay but he did not want to be alone with her. He didn’t know what to say or how to act. He’d hurt her. How could she forgive him for that? He was frozen in his spot as the nurse left them alone. What the hell was he supposed to do now?

“Jake?” Cassandra asked worriedly.

He avoided looking at her but nodded in acknowledgment and moved around the back of the chair to push it. He wheeled her toward the door in silence for a long moment before she spoke again.

“Are you okay?” she asked softly as she angled herself to look at him.

He blinked at her in disbelief. Did he hear her wrong? “What was that?”

“I asked if you were okay,” she repeated.

“Am I—am I okay?” He asked as he shook his head at her in amazement. “You were thrown against a wall and your head busted open _because of me_. And yet you’re asking me if _I’m okay_?”

“It wasn’t your fault, Ja—“

“Bullshit,” he said angrily. “Everyone keeps saying that, but it’s not true. I did this to you, Cass, you realize that, don’t you?”

“But _you_ didn’t. This wasn’t you. It was your hands, sure, but not your mind. Not your soul,” she assured him. “So, _not you_.”

“You’re forgiving me for this?” he asked skeptically.

“I can’t forgive you if there’s nothing to forgive in the first place, can I?” She asked with a small smile.

“Cassie, I’m serious,” he said as he stopped and came around to kneel in front of the wheelchair.

She nodded and met his eyes. “So am I. You didn’t have a choice,” she said as her blue eyes continued to gaze into his. He wondered what she saw in them. “The Siren didn’t give you a conscious choice. I can’t hold that against you.” She must have seen something else in his eyes because she continued and when she did he felt the burn of it in his chest. She seemed to see through him completely.  “What you did is nothing like what I did. I made a choice to betray Flynn and The Library and that’s a very different thing. So forgiveness isn’t even a question. I still trust you with my life, Jake. I always will.”

The “I wish you could do the same” was unspoken but he still felt the sting of it hanging between them.

“Cassandra,” he said slowly. “I do trus—“

“No,” she said frantically as she interrupted him. “Not now. Not here.”

He furrowed his brow at her and opened his mouth to speak but she beat him to it.

“If you said it now I would always wonder if you meant it or if you…if you said it out of misplaced guilt,” she told him. “So, just—just wait. See if it’s really how you feel and if it is…then great. But if not then I understand and I can wait until you _do_ mean it.”

He took a deep thoughtful breath and then nodded in understanding. “Okay.”

Jenkins appeared with the car and Jake wheeled Cassandra out in silence. The ride back to the Annex was even more tense than he’d imagined. Only no one else seemed to be feeling it except him. Jenkins was humming along with the radio and seemed strangely happy and Cassandra was asleep. But Jake couldn’t stop thinking. The day was replaying in his head. It’s strange how one day can seemingly change so many things. Or at least open your eyes to them. Cassandra had saved him today and risked her own safety to do it.

But really, she’d done that plenty of times before only…he’d never really given it much thought. Nearly every mission she put herself in front of someone else. It wasn’t always him. Sometimes it was Jones or Baird, which Baird always hated. But what was consistent was her instinct to save them. She didn’t even question it. He knew that if came down to it, she would do all she could to save his life. He knew that so well and so instinctively that he’d put all his faith in her leading him out of his own mind today. The station wagon stopped outside the Annex and Jenkins exited quickly and helped Cassandra out of the car before Jake had been able to bring himself out of his own thoughts.

“Jake,” Cassandra called over her shoulder as Jenkins led her away. “Are you coming?”

He jumped slightly and then shook himself out of his thoughts before he finally got out of the car and followed them inside. Baird was all over Cassie the minute she stepped in the door and ushered her to a chair.

“Really, I’m fine,” she protested. “It was just stitches.”

“Sit, Rest,” Baird commanded sternly. She pointed at Jake and then Jones. “That goes for you two as well. We all need lots of rest tonight. Understood?”

Jones rolled his eyes. “Yes, _mother_.”

Baird glared at him and then smacked the back of his head. “ _Never_ call me that again.”

Flynn looked up from his book and set eager and questioning eyes on Stone. “How did you do it?” Flynn asked as he shut his book and stood up from the desk he shared with Eve. “How did you break the song, Stone?”

Jake crossed his arms over his chest as the eyes in the room turned to glance at him curiously. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and looked down at the floor. He did not want to answer that question. It felt too…personal. But in a moment of weakness he looked over at Cassandra and her look of patient expectation did him in. She wanted to know, but she wasn’t going to be the one to push. That alone made him want to tell _her_ at least.

“I followed Cassandra out,” he admitted as he finally looked up at the group. Her heard her let out a soft gasp in surprise. The eyes turned to her and she visibly blushed and then looked down at her hands. She twisted them in her lap nervously as he continued.  “I can’t explain it that well really, except to say that I…I could see her. She was the only one I could see and I just _focused_ on that. I concentrated on reaching her and eventually I had control of myself again. The song didn’t entice me after that. All I could think about was getting to her and stopping the Siren. So, I guess, if you wanna know _how_ then the answer is…Cassandra.”

He let out a breath that he didn’t know he’d been holding after his confession was over. He hadn’t wanted to tell them, but for some reason he was glad he did. It was nice not hide something for once.

“Intriguing,” Flynn said with a smirk. “Very intriguing. I’ll have to see if there’s precedence for something like that.”

Jenkins cleared his throat and Jake turned to took at him and was met with a knowing stern expression. There was precedence for it. Jenkins had told him so. Jenkins did not verbally remind him of this. No, he just gave him a meaningful look and then turned to retreat into his lab.

“You know,” Baird said suddenly as she glanced between Cassandra and Jake. “Jenkins I, um, I think I have a few things to follow up on with you.”

Jenkins paused and gave her a confused look. “I don’t remember having any information to follow up—“

“Yeah, yeah you do. There was the, uh, the thing from the last case. You remember? Flynn and Jones were helping us,” Eve said as she motioned for the other two men in question to follow her toward Jenkins’s lab.

Ezekiel quirked a brow at her and smirked teasingly. “Were you this bad of a liar when you worked for NATO?"

She gave him a silencing glare and pulled him after her by his shirt collar.

“Have a nice talk, kids,” Ezekiel said to Jake and Cassandra as he was pulled out of the room with Flynn and Jenkins in tow.

“Well,” Cassandra said quietly with a small smile. “At least they tried.”

“And failed miserably,” Jake told her with a hesitant grin.

“Still, A for effort. Well, not really, because no one gives an A for effort, do they? A B minus maybe but not an A,” Cassandra said as he heard nerves creep into her tone.

“I didn’t question you,” he said suddenly. The words just spilled out. He’d thought them and couldn’t keep them in.

She looked up at him sharply. “What?”

Yeah, that probably did seem rather out of context to her, didn’t it? So, he tried again.

“When you were the only person I could see, I didn’t question it. I didn’t doubt you. I had no reservations about what that meant. I just _knew_ ,” he confessed. “I knew you were my way out, Cassandra. I _trusted_ that you would lead me home. _I trusted you_.”

“Well, that was a very high stress situation. It’s not uncommon to trust someone in the heat of the moment who you—“

His sighed tiredly. “Cassie.”

“I’m sorry, but how do you know you’re not saying this now because you think you got me hurt?” Cassandra asked as she looked down at her hands again.

“So, now you don’t trust _me_?” He asked with a wince. He’d sort of asked for that, hadn’t he? After pushing her away for so long, why wouldn’t she have doubts?

“No,” she answered softly. “I trust you with my life, Jake. Just…just not my emotions. There’s too much at risk if you don’t really mean it.”

He took several steps toward her until he was standing directly in front of her chair. Close enough to reach for her. But he didn’t. “I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it. I heard you at the hospital. I understood your request, but I have thought about it. I trust you. I trust that you’ll be there for me when I need you. You always have been.”

She scoffed. “Not always. There’s one glaring exception, remember?”

“You were scared,” he said as he knelt in front of her just as he had at the hospital, and deliberately placed himself in her line of sight. “You were alone. You didn’t have us then. If you could go back, Cassandra, would you make the same decision again? Knowing what you know now, would you still have let the Serpent Brotherhood in the Library?”

“No,” she said immediately. “Of course not. They used me and they lied to me. They told me no one would get hurt.” She chuckled bitterly. “And I was stupid enough to believe them.”

“Not stupid,” Jacob assured her. “Hopeful. There’s a difference.”

She didn’t respond. She just continued to wring her hands in her lap. This time he did reach for her. He covered her hands with one of his own. He squeezed her hands gently and, finally, she met his gaze.

He smiled softly at her and nodded before he spoke. “I trust ya, Cassie. There’s no way around it. I just do.”

He heard her take in a sharp breath as she recognized the phrasing he’d used. No doubt his reluctance to understand had been burned into her beautifully intense and brilliant brain. Suddenly, she launched her self at him in a tight hug. He caught her but couldn’t keep himself upright. He fell back on the floor awkwardly with her held tight in his arms. He’d had to maneuver them away from the table out of fear she’d hit her head again so she’d ended up in his lap. She beamed at him and her face flushed in happiness.

“That was perfect,” she gushed as she focused the full force of her blue eyes on his.

He chuckled and nodded before he spoke modestly. “I thought you might like that.”

 

* * *

 

“Hey! It’s my turn!” Flynn said in a stage whisper as he tried to pull Eve out of the space by the door that allowed them to see Jake and Cassandra in the main room.

She shushed him and then shoved him away. “It’s just getting good.”

“You know, I was invested in them before any of you,” Flynn said to the room. “That should give me dibs on the prime eavesdropping positions.”

“If you were really good,” Ezekiel said as he motioned to his laptop. “You wouldn’t need an eavesdropping position. Just a couple of well placed bugs.”

Eve turned and gave Jones an urgent look. “What did you just say?”

“Bugs,” he said slowly and loudly as if she were hard of hearing. “I said bugs.”

Jenkins let out a longsuffering sigh and tried to ignore the three additional people crowding his space.

“You bugged the Annex?” Flynn asked him with a proud smirk. “Impressive.”

Eve turned a glare and an accusing finger on Flynn. “That is _not_ something to be impressed by!” She turned her glare on Ezekiel before she continued. “You are removing those bugs, Jones!” She paused and then glanced out the open doorway before turning back to him. “First thing… _tomorrow_.”

The three of them crowded around Ezekiel’s laptop to listen and Jenkins sighed loudly once again. He was trying to communicate his distaste for eavesdropping, but they didn’t seem to understand. They made no move to put away the laptop. Jenkins silently walked to the door leading out of his lab and shut it. He locked it from the inside and pocketed the key. As he walked passed the group again he wordlessly reached through the three of them and shut Ezekiel’s laptop with a little more force than necessary and then took it away from them.

“Hey, mate, that’s mine!” Jones shouted indignantly.

Jenkins ignored him and pointed to Eve. “It was your idea to leave them alone, Guardian, and I will not tolerate eavesdropping in my lab. Now, make yourselves useful or make yourselves gone.” He smirked at that last sentence and gave Baird a smug look. She’d once said those very same words to him. Of course, that was before he’d some how become so involved in their tiring lives.

He had to admit. He sometimes enjoyed it.

My how times had changed.


End file.
